Thursday, April 29, 2010

A very fine line

I’ve been thinking about how much of myself as a writer finds its way into my words. We’re told write with courage, write with respect for our readers, ourselves, our words, and our story. We’re told to write what we know and to write with and from our passions. We’re told to write (and do) from our lived biographical experiences.

Larry Brooks at storyfix has a great cautionary post here about the awareness that writer’s must have regarding the unavoidable bleed-through between who and what they are and what their MC/hero/protagonist is on the page. Check it out.

How much of you is in your stories? How/where do you draw the line? Are you worried about possible consequences and/or repercussions?

27 comments:

I think there is lots and lots of me in my work. Not like you have to be afraid to be my friend or anything, but I definitely draw from my own experiences. But it could just be one character trait, one thing I've seen, one experience all meshed together. No one would ever be offended.

I think there is a lot of me in my stories, not intentionally I think that's just where my ideas are drawn from, everyday life. Not saying that I include every Joe Schmo, but different personalities intrigue me, or my sarcasm will be thrown in the mix. Even though my story is in another world doesn't mean everything about me disappears, if then I would say that even more of me is spilled over the pages.

How much of me is in my stories? Yikes! No one would want to read about a character made after me. There are other aspects of my life that have trickled into a ms here and there. People and places. Not enough to be noticable, I don't think. Well, I sure hope not! LoL.

The first time I let a RL friend read my MS, they told me that it took them a few pages to separate the MC from me in their head. I found this amusing, because I am nothing like my MC. I wonder if it's a pre-conceived notion that we will write about ourselves?

Other aspects of my book are from my life, but mostly in regards to setting, etc.

I'm not sure I could even write about myself if I tried. I'm just not that interesting.

My first few novels had a lot of me in them, but the more I write the more comfortable I am straying further afield. Still, you can't help inserting your own personality into it! My editor just came back to me and asked me why all of the men in the novel have six-packs! Haha!

this is interesting. Sometimes my MC is a great deal like me. Maybe its only physical, sometimes its in the internal but not always.

But in another way I put a lot of me in my characters. In that I feel like their passion, their drive should come from my passion, my drive for their story to be told.

I feel like the characters should hold an essence of the writer (that drive I mentioned above) but unless I choose to base the character on my own personality, style & characteristics they should live their own lives.

I become my MC. I guess that must mean a far bit of me is in my writing. I was writing a story that was based on a life experience, but one family member became very upset. So I had to cast it aside. Though the story is still niggling at me.

One of the finest writers on the planet told me to get close to my story, to write myself into it. So I do, but I'm not the MC with whom I have little in common. But the voice of the story? That's all me.

I like to write in 3rd person pov because I feel like to much bleeds from me into my writing when I write in first person. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but for me - it's a scary thing. I don't people to think my mc is me.

I liked EP's take on it--writing as acting. But I think that there is a piece of me in each of my characters, just as there is a piece of me in each of my children. Because, how can we truly write about something which isn't inside of us, somewhere.

My characters are generally very different from me. This is why I take a while during my first draft getting to know and understand them. That said, places I've been, experiences I've had, people I've known, pain I've suffered, etc. DO have some intrinsic impact on my writing, because they've had value on my life and how I understand the world and people.

What I'm saying is what most of your commenters already said: a part of me is in every character I write. Even if I am nothing at all like them.

Such an interesting discussion and reading through the comments is pretty insightful as well. I have to say that, in this, my first novel, a lot of life events are there (for example, a scene where my main character nearly drowns while white water rafting, that's from my real life experience). However, I feel like I'm not my character very much. She chooses to hide things a lot and I would so tell the world or talk it out with anyone who would listen! I figured out she's a lot more like my husband than me, which is funny.

I think it's an unconquerable aspect of all forms of creativity - if you're producing a work of art, it is impossible to stop part of yourself shining through. I don't think we should be worried unless, of course, we have something to hide...

I know I draw my characters characteristics from what I have experienced and what I have observed and judged. I don't believe we can completely separate ourselves but we can put our characters in situations that we will never experience, and see how they react. I agree with Sam. I don't think we should be worried. It is fiction after all.

No, because I write fantasy and my characters are toooootally different and in totally different situations, than I am. But there are universal themes that I draw on from personal experience, which I hope will help make the story resonate with the reader.

I do think it's interesting that I come up with these characters. Sometimes I think I must have an "inner Ranger" or "inner villain," deep down somewhere, far beneath my marshmallow fat and kindly exterior.

If only I could bring out that inner Ranger a little more, and get in shape. But then, I wouldn't be sitting here writing and blogging, now would I?

I think there is a lot of my personality in my main character; but I also think there is a lot of "wishful thinking" too. In her moments strength and deciveness, I wish that was me in my life.

I draw my characters from a variety of real personalities, so I'm not the only person people recognize in the story. It makes me blush with pride every time someone says they identify with a character; even if my assessment of the person differs with theirs.

Personal affinity is what I'm shooting for. But I think as I became more comfortable with my characters, I was able to pull myself out a bit and focus on them.